Design Days Dubai 2016: Rita Parniczky’s textiles lay their threads bare

Textile artist Rita Parniczky is thoroughly trained in the fine arts. In her native Hungary, she studied porcelain painting before moving to London and receiving an Arts Foundation fellowship and earning admission to Central Saint Martins.
Throughout these programs, Parniczky gravitated toward materials at their most elementary. She wanted to assemble the clothes, not sketch them–and she wanted to see between their threads. This interest in the skeleton of things would become her central focus: the journey into a cohesive artistic practice began with a single yarn.
Now, Parniczky is known for her semi-translucent ‘X-Ray’ tapestries. Using clear nylon monofilament and a technique she developed while still at Central Saint Martins, Parniczky creates textiles that lay their own weave bare once backlit.
Working with high profile clients like the Victoria & Albert museum, the designer uses her drawing background to create detailed patterns of the textiles to come. Although, she explains, ‘it’s important to let some things happen on the loom.’
At Design Days Dubai 2016, she exhibited one piece of her three-part X-Ray Vault Series II and another piece from the X-Ray Crystal Series through the UK's Craft Council. In her ‘X-Ray Vault Series,’ Parniczky was inspired by the fan vaulting seen in Gothic cathedrals. Memories of her childhood countryside give her a nuanced understanding of shadow and light. In her work, one sees the eye of both an architect and a cartographer.
And yet, Parniczky is most like a surgeon, performing operations in reverse. The more complete her works, the more she answers her motivating question: ‘what is happening underneath the surface?’
Parniczky is working on making her own process more visible. For years, she has experimented with x-ray-like photograms– silhouettes of exposed objects created in a darkroom. After winning the 2016 Perrier-Jouët Arts Salon Prize, Parniczky will present her first solo exhibition: ‘Weaving with Light’ at Contemporary Applied Arts 24th June– 30th July. She will also exhibit her photograms for the first time.
‘[The photograms] shouldn’t be locked away in a sketchbook,’ Parniczky says, ‘They are art in and of themselves.’
Using clear nylon monofilament and a technique she developed while still at Central Saint Martins, Parniczky (pictured) creates textiles that lay their own weave bare once backlit. Photography: Alun Callender
In her ‘X-Ray Vault Series,’ Parniczky was inspired by the fan vaulting seen in Gothic cathedrals. Pictured: X-Ray Vault Series II (2015)
Pictured: X-Ray Vault Series II (2015)
Pictured: X-Ray Vault Series II No II (2015)
Parniczky is working on making her own process more visible. For years, she has experimented with x-ray-like potograms– silhouettes of exposed objects created in a darkroom. Pictured: Photogram (2009)
Pictured: Photogram (2009)
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
The 2025 British Pavilion in Venice offered up a Geology of Britannic Repair
The 2025 British Pavilion in Venice is curated by an Anglo-Kenyan team of architects and designers; titled 'GBR: Geology of Britannic Repair', it explores the landscape of colonialism, its past, present and futures
-
A Venice sneak peek into the new Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain by Jean Nouvel
A new home for Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain by Jean Nouvel will open later this year in Paris; in the meantime, the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 offered the perfect platform for a sneak preview of what's to come
-
Let's go outside: ten outdoor furniture ranges we love
Our round-up of outdoor furniture brings together work by leading designers and studios, blending contemporary forms with enduring materials designed to elevate open-air living
-
Postcard from Dubai Design Week 2024: the highlights
Dubai Design Week, the largest design fair in the Middle East, showcased more than 1,000 acclaimed and emerging designers, brands and creative leaders. Here are our highlights
-
Downtown Design 2022 set to bolster Dubai’s booming design scene
The Middle East’s leading design fair, Downtown Design returns 9 – 12 November 2022, presenting opportunities for the world’s design industry in the UAE’s booming market In partnership with Downtown Design
-
Dubai Design Week 2021 champions local creativity and visions of the future
Dubai Design Week 2021 highlights – here’s our pick of where to go and what to see (8 –13 November 2021)
-
Global Grad Show 2020 takes innovation to the next level
From a fall prevention device for elderly Parkinson's disease patients to a navigation system made of silk protein, this year’s works address our globe’s complex issues
-
Hozan Zangana's socially-distant seating is inspired by mirages
In Dubai, the Iraqi designer explores a design based on the Fata Morgana phenomenon, creating public seating that invites people to connect from a safe distance
-
UAE’s thriving creative scene catapults Dubai Design Week onto a global stage
-
Creative dispatches: highlights from Dubai Design Week 2017
-
Dubai’s Global Grad show tackles social and enviromental problems through diverse design